Are You Awake?

Early in this unsettling thriller from McGowan (What You Did), London lawyer Mary Collins, a sleep-deprived mother of two small children with a troubled marriage, goes late one night to a nearby park, where she runs into Tim Darbandi, whose past trauma as a reporter in a war zone causes insomnia. Both Mary and Tim were in the park the night before, and each of them, as they soon realize, saw a young woman being attacked in a house backing on the park. From news reports, Tim and Mary suspect the person they glimpsed was 19-year-old Samantha Ellis, a caregiver at a local nursing home who’s disappeared. Since the police don’t believe that they saw the attack, Tim and Mary go in search of Samantha on their own, but these efforts land Tim in a heap of legal trouble. The stakes rise when it becomes clear someone wants to permanently end their investigation before they can disclose a kidnapper’s identity. McGowan does a good job ramping up the suspense as the good intentions of two people unable to sleep turn into a quest for justice. Fans of Hitchcock’s Rear Window will want to check this one out. Agent: Diana Beaumont, Marjacq. (Nov.)